The Boox Palma e-reader is unquestionably my favourite gadget from the previous few years, however I additionally get why so many individuals discover it to be somewhat confounding. It is a phone-shaped e-ink machine that has all of the capabilities of a contemporary Android smartphone—along with serving up your e-books, it could actually run apps from the Google Play retailer; it even has a digital camera. However would not have mobile performance, which implies it could actually’t take calls. That may be altering, and shortly.

In response to a report from The Verge, Boox’s guardian firm, the Chinese language tech agency Onyx Worldwide, is engaged on a brand new Palma-like machine that can retain the shape and e-ink show of the present Palma, however add each mobile connectivity and shade—two of probably the most requested options from the machine’s die-hard followers, at the least judging by my observations of the r/Onyx_Boox subreddit over the previous few years.

The Verge bought a take a look at the presumed Palma successor throughout IFA 2025, a European commerce present akin to CES. Although it wasn’t on show on the present flooring, a reporter was proven a tool that positive seemed so much just like the Palma, however which had each a shade show (nearly definitely the identical Kaleido 3 display discovered on the Boox Go Shade 7) and icons indicating a 4G + LTE mobile connection. No concrete particulars on specs or a launch date had been supplied. (You may learn extra, and see an image of the machine, over at The Verge).

Operate lastly follows type

Personally, I really like the Palma as a result of it is extra moveable than the typical e-reader. As a result of it’s simpler to hold, I learn extra and use addictive apps on my telephone much less (although the Palma can run most apps, social media is not very enjoyable on a sluggish e-ink display). However I nonetheless want to hold my telephone, for all the standard causes (messaging, maps, tap-to-pay), so it isn’t the life-changing machine it’d in any other case be. That might change if Boox certainly releases a Palma that may make calls and run messaging apps over a mobile connection.

There are lots of questions that have to be answered earlier than I can get too excited, nonetheless. For one factor, the machine hasn’t been formally introduced, and there isn’t any assure it is going to be launched within the close to time period, or if it is going to be offered within the U.S. (not all Boox merchandise can be found within the U.S. market). Then there’s the matter of service assist—you are definitely not going to have the ability to purchase a Palma telephone direct from Verizon or T-Cellular, and it isn’t a positive factor {that a} Chinese language-made area of interest machine it would play good with each home service.

We additionally haven’t any data on what this factor may cost a little. For $300, the Palma already has lots of phone-like capabilities, however including a shade display and a modem (and getting it licensed to play good with U.S.-based networks) will undoubtedly push that quantity so much increased. Tariffs aren’t seemingly to assist issues both: The newest Palma 2 has already elevated in value from $279 to $299, and given that every one e-ink screens are made abroad, there isn’t any probability it will not face these extra import charges.

All that stated, one other machine already in the marketplace offers me a reasonably good thought of what utilizing a Palma telephone will probably be like.

Not the primary e-ink telephone

For the previous few months, I have been taking part in round with the Bigme Hibreak Professional, a $459 e-reader that appears an terrible lot like my Palma 2 (you’ll be able to see each within the image on the prime of this text). In lots of respects, the Hibreak Professional is a one for one match for the Palma…nevertheless it additionally has 5G mobile functionality.

A tool like this holds lots of attraction—I am at a degree the place I’m beginning to resent my iPhone’s primacy in my life. I might love carry just one machine, and one that does not as readily plug me in to the horrors of the web and social media, however which might nonetheless deal with probably the most important features (conserving me linked to my household, dealing with NFC funds, guiding me by way of Google Maps).

However to this point, for me, the Hibreak Professional is not it—as with different Bigme units I’ve examined, I discover its software program deeply irritating, and I have never had the time or power to dedicate to putting in another launcher. (It would not assist that the primary machine I acquired had a defective USB-C port, and getting a substitute took a number of months.) I typically assume Boox makes higher units than Bigme, so I am hopeful a Palma telephone would repair a few of these points.

At this level, that is nonetheless an enormous if. Regardless of their lovability, Boox’s e-readers undoubtedly aren’t as user-friendly as a Kindle. And although the Palma has attracted a cult following (to not point out mainstream consideration from retailers like The New York Instances), an e-ink telephone is at all times going to have area of interest attraction, which implies we’re impossible to see one from a longtime tech firm like Apple or Samsung. A Palma telephone may fulfill some e-ink diehards, however I do not count on to see too a lot of them whereas using the subway.